It's True

People who said that one should enjoy life the most with friends in school and college were right. Money can't buy you those moments. It never will. 

Oh No!

That song should not have been playing at that moment. I am stupidly in love with I don't know who/what. 

Reminiscent

I'm ill and bored. Had been thinking of making a record of the past few years' travels. So, here we are...


Delhi-Jhansi-Orchha-Jhansi-Delhi
20-22 August, 2011
Amiya, Alekhya, Shantanu, Tarun

Delhi-Bangalore-Wayanad-Delhi
13-15 August, 2011
Karan, Ruhi

Delhi-Jaipur-Delhi
14-15 May, 2011
Priyam, Ridhima, Swetha

Delhi-Agra-Fatehpur Sikri-Delhi
5 March, 2011
Varun

Delhi-Rudrapur-Nainital-Sitla-Mukteshwar-Almora-Patal Devi-Kasar Devi-Chitai-Jageshwar-Kausani-Ranikhet-Bhimtal-Kathgodam-Delhi
15-22 December, 2010
Radhika

Delhi-Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai-Delhi
11-12 December, 2010
Dhoop, Robin, Ruhi















Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi

24-25 May, 2010
Agneesh, Akshay, Amisha, Bhai, Bhabhi, Harsh, Nidhi, Salil, Samridhi, Sarthak, Sharad, Shiven, Surabhi, Stuthi, Sushant, Swaroop, Swathi, Tanya, Tushar

Pune-Mumbai-Pune
20-21 March, 2010
Mamaji and Family

Pune-Panchgani-Wai-Pune
15-16 March, 2010
Priyam, Robin, Ruhi, Swetha, Vrinda

Pune-Kunjirwadi-Pune
12 February, 2010
PR Batch, SIMC

Pune-Koyna-Guhagar-Ganpatipule-Malgund-Jaigad-Pune
30 December 2009-1 January 2010
Bhavya, Debanjana, Kausik, Priyam, Ranjan, Ridhima, Ruhi, Shagun, Swetha, Vinaya

Lavale-Tamhini Ghat-Pune City-Lavale
3 September, 2009
Priyam, Ridhima, Robin, Ruhi, Sahil, Vrinda

Lavale-Mulshi Lake-Pune City-Lavale
22 August, 2009
Kausik, Nishant, Venkatesh

Pune-Khadakvasla-Sinhagarh-Pune
26 July, 2009
Karan

Pune-Srivardhan-Pune
31 June-1 July, 2009
Ankita, Priyam, Swetha

Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi
24 May, 2009
Bhai, Ma, Pa

Delhi-Rishikesh-Delhi
2-3 May, 2009
Avantika, Priya, Nidhi, Samridhi, Shagun

Pune-Aurangabad-Ellora-Ajanta-Aurangabad-Pune
9-10 February, 2009
Ankita, Priyam













Pune-Mumbai-Kolkata-Jamshedpur-Kolkata-Mumbai-Pune
30 January-4 February, 2009
Subhadip, Sumit

Delhi-Moradabad-Delhi
1-7 November, 2008

Delhi-Pune-Delhi
23-26 January, 2008
Ma, Nanu

Big 25, Part B!

I have a feeling that even though the birthday falls on a Saturday this year, nothing too special is going to happen. But my desire to make the big 25 a little extra special remains. So I have conveniently labelled my two August weekend trips as my birthday celebrations in advance. Wayanad was A, and this past weekend’s Orchha trip was B. Two reasons why it works well are:
1. I am at my happiest when I am travelling.
2. There is no guilt in spending so much money because birthday is anyway special!

The Orchha idea was floated by Amiya and her friend Alekhya. I got involved because I had posted on Facebook that I want to travel during the janamashtami weekend. I wanted to see snow, but I didn’t mind palaces and temples at all.

The economics geek club and I were to take the Bhopal Shatabdi till Jhansi, and travel by road from there. I was boarding a train after about 1.5 years and was excited as always. And the window seat made me happier. It was an uneventful journey with courteous interaction with Alekhya and Shantanu whom I had met briefly on one or two occasions earlier.

We took two autos from Jhansi station to Orchha. On the way, Tarun and I discussed how the weather was decent and the air was cool. I had devoted no time to any kind of planning for this trip. While packing a couple of hours before the train I had only managed to check the weather conditions and had noticed the 80% humidity projection. 80% did seem to be on the higher side, but I had no choice at that hour. It would not be an exaggeration even if I say that this humidity felt like it was 150% over the three days. I was not amused. And now that I have cribbed about it, I shall go on talking about the good things.

Amiya had arranged for us to spend a night at a home stay in the interiors of Orchha. We were all worried that we may have to use community toilets but nobody was to mess with Amiya after she had given her word to someone. To my pleasant surprise, the toilet there was nice and clean. Especially given what I had to experience in my last trip. Half-squats are not easy if you have not seen the face of your gym in 20 days. But Alekhya really wanted a far more convenient bathroom. One with a tub, I mean. I think that first day I rubbed her the wrong way quite a few times. I was almost sure she would hate me by the end of the trip. Anyway.

Shantanu, with Manish, a kid who amused all but me. 

After a nice, homely lunch at our hosts’ place, we decided we would rent cycles and visit the less explored side of the Betwa river. For that we had to bike through Futera, a small village adjacent to our place of stay. Most of us were riding a bike after long but were equally excited about our little venture. A short distance on road was followed by a kaccha road, which was followed by lugging the cycles through a rocky terrain.

Betwa

My claim of being a water person was written off because I do not know how to swim and was not comfortable going into the river. The others enjoyed the water immensely as I had the near-coronary of this trip. My need for a few quiet, alone moments made me walk a little away from where everyone else was. But I had not gone too far when I slipped on a rock and completely lost control. Heard the camera smash on the adjacent rock. In the five seconds that the entire episode took place, I also froze for a moment after hearing that sound. The lens had taken a hit. I was much thankful about the fact that I had not taken the hood off yet. After noticing the scratches on it, I felt the pain that was poking in my back. It was rough, but not too bad. I walked on. A couple of steps ahead I noticed some movement in the water. It got me enthused because I almost believed it to be a crocodile. Right then Tarun called and insisted that I came back. And when I turned around, my croc had turned into a stupid buffalo. Without giving it any further attention, I walked back to where everyone else was, we clicked a few pictures, and started our journey back home.

We spent some time contemplating whether it would make sense to move to Khajuraho the following day or not. I obviously wanted to go. Because of the slow pace of the trip till then, others didn’t. Nobody understood my ‘main to ja rahi hoon’ emotion, and I decided to behave myself because I was travelling with these people for the first time. Actually I behaved extremely well for the bummer that the decision was in my head. Alas, nobody except me could appreciate it then.

Amiya and Alekhya took a little nap. Tarun whiled away time and then went for a bath. Sitting around, doing nothing in that annoying weather was driving me crazy. So, at 6.30 pm, I picked up my camera and stepped out. I didn’t know where I was going. I knew that the light was receding too quickly, but I just had to step out! I think Shantanu couldn’t figure why I suddenly decided to go out alone and offered to come along. I didn’t mind his company, and the two of us started walking. I saw the chhatris in the distance and felt like going there. But the light was really too low for it to be of any use. Then we saw that big tree that we had noticed in the morning. It was bloody huge. Shantanu was excited about it, wanted to have a closer view of it, and I also thought it made sense to go there rather than figure the way to the chhatris. We asked for directions to the tree and rushed towards it. I clicked a few pictures and again felt that sense of incompetence at capturing the grandeur of nature through my camera. In any case, there’s no reason to complain as it was a nice, little outing that improved my mood.

We had been suggested to try out Milan restaurant for good pizzas. The sceptic in me had a feeling that it would turn out to be one of those not-so-nice overrated popular places. But it was surprisingly good. Wood fired pizzas, pastas, cheesy mashed potatoes, good juices and laughter made for a perfectly indulgent and satiating dinner.

Our dessert - Hello To The Queen. Alekhya thought it was nothing better than chaat papdi. It really was quite sad!

Alekhya!

Like all fun trips with friends, this too had a ‘highlight of the trip’. During our auto ride back Tarun snapped at innocent Alekhya with a, “clearly you don’t know anything about the Mesopotamian civilization”. (Geek club, told ya!) It was all in good humour and the ‘clearly’ tone is going to stay with us till the time we remember this trip. 

I had planned to wake up early so that I could check out all the pretty places at leisure (in decent weather). But when my alarm rang I realised that we were going to be in that place for two more days and we could all just go do the sight-seeing together. So I went back to sleep for a few more hours.

While the home stay was nice, the humidity was getting to all of us and we really wanted to get out of there to a more comfortable place. Tarun worked hard to find a decent hotel for the following night and we finally narrowed in on the available Betwa Retreat. Heritage suite at Betwa Retreat to be precise. The idea was that all of us could stay together in one big room. So we settled our accounts with Friends of Orchha and took an auto to our hotel. We couldn’t help but laugh at the stark contrast that the hotel’s luxury was to our little, rural experience of the previous 24 hours. But we are all admittedly spoilt, big city kids. Nothing makes us happier than an air conditioner. Hey, the place had a bath tub too! :D One of them looked towards me and even commented that s/he knows that now I would just stay parked in the room. But I had to not give in to that temptation! I didn’t know when, or if at all, these guys would go out to see what Orchha is known for. So I was the first one in for a shower and out I went to the Raja’s Mahal to get my sole ticket which allowed entry to all tourist places there. On the way I also bought a much-needed stole lest my skin would have burned down to ashes ‘coz it wasn’t just humid then, the sun was harsh too.

Night at the home stay!

The Betwa Retreat Hotel

Our Heritage Suite

On entering, my first thought was, “wow, they’re not making any effort to maintain this place”. But the structure’s beauty and expanse took over that feeling instantly. I took a long walk all around the complex, met more cows and goats (Orchha’s definitely cattle-extensive!) and clicked a lot of pictures. What I also observed during those two hours was some constant religious singing in the background. Someone had mentioned a temple where people have been singing for eight years, but this sound could not have been from the temple because it was in the other direction. I don’t remember when I started following that voice, but I do remember that it was one of the most soulful, most touching voices ever. The man wasn’t entirely in tune, but his voice was real.

When I tired myself out completely, I headed back to the hotel for lunch with the rest of the gang.

Some good conversations and okay-ish food later, the four of them went to the Mahals and I went to the room for a cool-down. The set-up somehow worked well for me. I relaxed for some time and then joined them again at Milan restaurant. We had clearly developed a liking for the place!

From Milan we walked to the cenotaphs closer to our hotel. They looked magnificent in the setting sun’s light.

Alekhya had been wishing for some wine for the past two days, and dinner that night was finally time for some wine. But as it turned out, she didn’t want that wine anymore. So we ordered for white rum, and Amiya & I gave her company. Soon, Alekhya and I were cracking up over some nonsense that at least I don’t remember now. All I know is that we were having a good time.

Soon after we got back to the room, Amiya and Alekhya stepped out with their conversations. Tarun fell asleep. Shantanu and I had a small but interesting discussion, and then he went out and joined the girls too. I wasn’t too sleepy, I didn’t want to disturb them either, so I decided to walk to the other side of the lawn and sit with the moon. The stillness of the night and the striking brightness of the moon somehow made me wish for company for a change. A shoulder to rest my head on. But that didn’t change the fact that I was enormously thankful to my god for giving me that moment. Over the years I have learnt to respect some of the finer opportunities and people that He has sent my way. And this night was one of the many flashes of happiness and freedom that I have got from Him.

Shantanu had promised me that he won’t let me sleep before I drink enough water to compensate for the drinking, and thankfully he kept his word.

The next morning was definitely lazy. Even for me. I lay on the bed and enjoyed the nothingness as Amiya played some sufi music on Tarun’s laptop (which he was carrying for work like a typical consultant). We took our time getting ready and checking out. It was too late by the time we thought of the temples because apparently they’re closed by 12.30 pm. So we just went to another popular restaurant, Cha Cha Moon, played poker there, and sat around till the time we could breathe no more because it was a little stuffy there.

We were again taking the Bhopal Shatabdi from Jhansi, and were scheduled to leave at 1755. Till then we killed time at the hotel reception, took prints of the ticket, shopped a little, lost a borrowed earring, found it, laughed, and perspired too.

I saw the setting sun from the massive window of the train and felt even happier about life.

I promised Alekhya that I would see her again. I told Shantanu that I did really like him. I didn’t tell Amiya and Tarun anything. Just said quick good-byes and got home to my bed.

This trip was quite different from the Wayanad trip the previous weekend. Even from the ones that I used to take from Pune. The strangers were exceedingly sweet and I had a great time with them. Tarun was the comforting factor even though he was highly irritating as usual. And of course, complete credit goes to Amiya for planning, organising, and making this trip happen. We were all busy with our respective lives, but she took the much-needed initiative and made our weekend perfect. 

Orchha

I am back from a super trip to Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, but work is killing me enough to make this kind of an update for now. Kindly await the details and photographs.

Freedom

A commonly-expressed thought crossed my mind early this past weekend. Freedom is inside, they say. I pondered over it for a while and thought I agreed. And then I took a morning flight to Bangalore.

I landed on time, the city greeted me with delightful weather, I had a Sub while I waited for Karan to pick me, and tried not to think about the excitement that I was experiencing about the weekend a day earlier.

Over the past months, I had had several conversations with Ruhi and Karan about how I should visit them in Bangalore. But I could not make up my mind until this July, which is when I finally booked my tickets for this extended I Day weekend.

I admit that even though I called it my Bangalore Trip, it wasn’t exactly so because I spent a little less than 24 hours in the city. It was actually a road trip that started a couple of thousand kilometres away from home. Road trip to Wayanad, Kerala.

There was a lot of back and forth while planning. The distance and monsoons were deterring factors, but the fact that neither Karan nor (obviously) me had seen the place earlier was motivation enough to head out to the beauty that the place is. Ruhi could not join us because we took too long to confirm, so it was just the two of us, with GPS navigation and some good music all the way to Kerala!

To begin with, it took two hours to just get out of Bangalore. Apparently the traffic wasn’t too much because it was a Saturday morning. I take Karan’s word for that. Then we moved through Mysore and Bandipur towards Kalpetta, the capital of Wayanad. While some patches of the jungle and Kalpetta itself had horrible roads, the rest of the journey was smooth and a lot of fun. There was also a patch somewhere in the middle where on both sides of the road there are marigold fields. Bright orange marigolds! I made Karan stop the car for a bit because I could certainly not get enough of the orange. It’s my favourite colour these days. The air too was filled with wonderful fragrance. Orgasmic? Is that how things get described often? Yes, that was the feeling.

We made another short stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I may repeat this point multiple times, but I can’t get to describing how clean and cool the air was. We really did not feel like moving from there.

As you might know, I subscribe to a lot of popular stuff, including certain Bollywood moments. Thus, the connect that I felt while songs like hairat hai from Anjaana Anjaani and dil dhadakne do from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara played is hard to illustrate. Those were my moments of ultimate free spiritedness! I was conscious of the wind in my hair. I did not care a damn about how my hair would look later. Felt good. That’s all that mattered.

We spotted some elephants while in Bandipur, the green was irresistible, and my excitement knew no bounds. With that we saw a beautiful sunset somewhere close to Sulthan Bathery. Then began the bad roads in the dark, and a nightmare we were not expecting.

Neither of us had an inkling of just how popular Wayanad is. So we did not know that the place has a LOT of hotels. And ALL those hotels were occupied for the weekend. We went up and down Kalpetta twice over looking for a place for close to three hours. At one fully occupied home stay a guy called some friend of his whose home stay had place. The guy got us to follow his bike to the place. Within a few minutes he went off the main road, and kept heading straight into the darkness. He was about 100-150 metres ahead of us when he took a right turn. But when we got to the point we saw a dead end and a cross. It was a cemetery. My heart, which was beginning to get worked up because of the nothingness that we were driving into, seriously leaped into my mouth. It was literally a ‘cemetery on a hill’. I got Karan to turn the car around. But our luck, the left rear tyre got stuck. I would have had a coronary if it had taken a second longer to get out of the place! Of course, later it was funny and mister had a big laugh about it. I do not get easily scared, but this was just extraordinarily creepy!

After much ado we did find a place to stay.

The morning was serene; we had some dossai, and headed out to Pookot Lake. The drive was decent, especially through Vythiri. The lake being a typical tourist spot was a disappointment. I don’t think we spent more than ten minutes there. It really wasn't worth it.

A couple of minutes away from the lake was a little trail that was appealing. We parked the car and started climbing up. While I continued walking, Karan got a chance to play with his camera. With each step that I took I felt a wave of the unexplained go through me. I could hear myself breathe, my mind was as clear as the air, and the very sense of being in hills, tea estates, and clouds was satiating.

I climbed further up and found a small rock to park myself on. It was me and a vulture sounding a sound that wasn’t noise in that atmosphere.

After a while we felt we should move. As Karan walked towards the car, I struggled to get my feet moving. I don’t know how I lost control of them, but they were reluctant. But we did leave, this time heading towards the Banasura Dam. The drive to the Dam was about an hour long. The roads were good and the view even more beautiful! The music at that point fit with the emotions that I was experiencing then. That overwhelming nature of nature took over me. That was freedom. The tears felt like they did the leftover cleansing. I think it got Karan a little concerned, but it certainly was nothing to worry about.

The happiness continued during the little trek to the dam, and increased as I sprawled on the road up there. I knew the few pictures I was taking were ordinary, and I could not care less about those either. It was 1-0-0% relaxation. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Neither of us wanted to leave that place because next stop was Bangalore. We had not had enough. But I guess that’s the best feeling to leave a place with, isn’t it? Wanting more.

The drive back was as much fun. We sang, laughed, this time interacted with other cars moving with us, and reached Bangalore only at night, tired, in time for a pizza for dinner.

We browsed through some school photographs, talked about the times that were and the years that have passed. 15 years of knowing each other. The love, the respect, and the understanding remain intact even though we see each other only once in a couple of years.

The next day was Ruhi’s. So I said good-bye to Karan and moved to Ruhi’s car. At her place I also met Rohini. It was good to see her! One of the few faces that I like from Pune. Oh, the dosas she made for breakfast for perfectly delicious. I ate till I could eat no more, and then Ruhi and I stepped out to shop for some Mysore silk for Ma. Saree and Mysore Pak packed, we headed to Aroy for some Thai lunch. We did not realise how time flew by. We were still in our grown-up conversations and yumm corn & spinach when my Meru arrived. I did not want to leave.

I still do not want to leave the experience behind. I am sentimental about this one. It goes without saying that it earned a space closer to my heart. Ruhi and Karan made it perfect. The times when perfect is an elusive word.